Letter of the day: Education secretary insults Common Core opponents

Regarding “Education chief defends Common Core standards” (Nation/World, Nov. 18): Education Secretary Arne Duncan says opponents of Common Core Standards are white suburban mothers who all of a sudden are finding out their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were. How insulting and bigoted from a guy who until 2009 ran the Chicago school system, which is at the bottom of the barrel.

It is also claimed only “fringe groups” oppose Common Core. I would not call parents, grandparents and highly respected educators “fringe groups.” As Anthony Cody, from the National Education Policy Center says, “The Standards are fatally flawed by the absence of any democratic process or review.”

What makes the most sense is to pause Common Core’s adoption. State Rep. Debbie Mayfield, a Republican from Vero Beach, has proposed a bill that would pause the full implementation. It would give us all a chance to see what the funding will cost and give us an opportunity to have at least one Board of Education public hearing in each congressional district.

When something is forced on the American people without proper vetting, we have a very angry and uncooperative constituency on both sides of the aisle.